


Apocalypse Now!

by steeleye



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Horror, Sci-Fi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 21:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14860404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: They always thought that the apocalypse would come from below. When the final apocalypse did eventually arrive it came from above.





	Apocalypse Now!

Apocalypse Now!

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the mystery xover, I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** Surprise Xover.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious UK-English which is different to US-English.

 **Timeline:** Sometime around the start of BtVS Season Seven.

 **Words:** One chapter of 2000+ words.

 **Warnings:** Dark fic.

 **Summary:** They always thought that the apocalypse would come from below. When the final apocalypse did eventually arrive it came from above.

0=0=0=0

“I'm hungry,” Dawn moaned as she rested her head on Willow's shoulder.

“I know sweetie,” Willow sympathised, none of them had eaten in the last three days, not since Xander...Willow forced the image of what had happened to her friend from her mind, “I'm sure Buffy'll be back soon.”

The two young women were sitting on the floor in the basement of a deserted house; they'd been there since the previous evening. They'd been so exhausted after being on the run for the last week or more that they'd simply had to stop and rest despite the danger of the Invaders catching them like they'd caught so many other people. This morning Buffy had gone out to look for food and water, the Invaders had infected everything so you had to be careful what you ate or drank, Xander hadn't been and he'd...'changed'.

He'd found the Twinkie just lying on the counter top in the kitchen of another deserted house where they'd been searching for supplies. The packaging had looked intact, they'd already learnt to be careful what they ate or drank, and Xander had joked about how Twinkie's were his favourite food because they weren't really food and didn't leave you with that 'full' feeling. He'd removed the wrapping and bitten into the snack. At first nothing seemed to be wrong, until he'd screamed as he held up his arm, it was slowly changing making him into one of 'them'; Buffy had killed him right then and there.

Although Willow knew there was nothing to be done to save Xander, once infected that was it, you changed into one of 'them'; but she still felt bitter and just a little angry that Buffy had killed her life-long friend. But then, Xander was Buffy's friend too and hadn't she had to kill Giles? He'd become infected, changed and come after them trying to infect them as well, Buffy had tried to stop him but she couldn't and she'd been forced to kill her own father figure. She'd told Willow and Dawn that she'd be okay and how it had to be done and Giles wouldn't have wanted to live like that. But Willow saw the truth in Buffy's eyes.

0=0=0=0

Had it only been three weeks since the Invaders' ship had appeared in orbit around Earth, Willow asked herself? At first there'd been only minor panic, most people had been excited about how all those science fiction movies had been right and that there was now proof that there was intelligent life out there in the galaxy. At first the aliens hadn't bothered trying to communicate, their ship had just floated there in space, 'exactly in the same way as a brick didn't' as Douglas Adams had once put it. They didn't even seem to mind when NASA and other space agencies sent up probes for a closer look. The probes set back no useful information and the aliens remained mute.

The aliens had been in orbit for just over a week when they decided to communicate with the peoples of Earth. It wasn't so much a communication as a description of what Earth's fate was to be. Almost as soon as the alien's message was completed they started to use incredibly powerful beams of destructive energy to scoop up entire cities and their populations, on that first day billions of people disappeared and thousands of cities and towns simply vanished leaving only huge holes in the ground.

Of course governments fired their nuclear tipped missiles at the invaders, but it was hopeless. None of the missiles even reached there targets and the launching sites were destroyed before they could launch a second strike. Not long after that everything fell apart. People started to 'run for the hills' to avoid the fate of the people who hadn't left the cities at the first approach of the aliens.

It appeared that Sunnydale wasn't a big enough target for the aliens to destroy straight away, so Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Giles and Xander had had a little time to pack up and make some preparations for their escape. They'd had no real idea of where to go other than heading up into the mountains north of Sunnydale, almost anywhere was good as long as it was away from any towns or cities.

It was only as they headed for the mountains in Giles' red sports car that they saw the first of the 'Zombies'. They'd spotted the lone zombie coming out of a store and Giles had insisted that they needed to stop and take a closer look. If the Invaders were to be defeated they'd need to know everything they could about them. So, they'd stopped and got out of the car to take a look at the zombie. It wasn't a real zombie, for a start its skin had turned grey and not the traditional green of the living dead. The zombie still wore the remains of what had probably once been an expensive business suit. There were strange metallic growths erupting from its skin and one of its hands had been completely replaced by what looked like some sort of robotic multi-tool.

At first the zombie didn't appear to be interested in the humans who were surrounding it. But, when Giles got just a little too close to it and it sprang into action. It grabbed him with its robot hand and injected something into Giles' neck. Leaping at the zombie, Buffy grabbed it by its head and had broken its neck. While Willow and Xander dragged Giles back to the car, Buffy covered their retreat, but it was already too late for Giles. By the time they'd got him back to the car the skin on Giles' neck around the injection wound was already turning grey. The friends watched in helpless, horrified fascination as metal appeared from under Giles' skin and built itself into strange little machines. Within minutes Giles had been transformed enough to stand up and attack Buffy trying to inject her with whatever had been injected into him. Buffy had killed him only after she'd tried and failed to incapacitate her old mentor.

Shocked beyond imagining by what she'd been forced to do, Xander had to drag Buffy back into the car as more of the zombies appeared from out of the surrounding buildings. They'd sped off down the road heading for the mountains but they'd never made it, the car had somehow become infected and had started to transform into something else. Abandoning the car they'd grabbed their stuff and set out on foot for the supposed safety of the mountains that were only five miles away, but they never reached them. The need to avoid the suddenly numerous zombies and the lack of supplies forced them back into more populated and built-up areas.

It was only then that they discovered that the food and water had been infected by whatever was turning people into mechanical zombies. They'd seen people eat and drink and then, minutes later, start to turn into the robot horrors that came after you with all the single-minded determination of a vampire assassin cult. Yes the robo-zombies could be killed, they could even be shot, but they just kept coming until you either ran out of ammunition or you were too exhausted to fight any more. The robo-zombies didn't appear to sleep and they chased you day and night.

At first Willow's spells had allowed them to remain mostly undetected, but after a few days her spells became less and less effective until the zombies could walk through her magic wards as if they weren't there. It was at this point that the four humans started to run desperately trying to keep ahead of the rising tide of grey zombies. Now they had no plan and there only goal was to stay ahead of the wave of grey that was rushing to engulf them. It was then that Xander ate that cursed Twinkie.

Up until that point Willow had determined, by using magic, that sealed food and water, anything in an unopened bottle or tin for instance, was safe to eat or drink. But, it now appeared that the invader bugs had adapted to her spells and were able to remain undetected. Xander had eaten his last Twinkie and started to transform, Buffy had killed him and the three survivors had started to run again.

For three days they'd run not daring to eat anything and only drinking from sealed bottles of water that were still in their plastic packaging. However on the evening of the third night, they'd been so exhausted that they'd had to stop and rest. They'd hidden in the basement of an abandoned house. Waiting for dawn, Buffy had volunteered to go out and search for food, they had to have something to eat or they'd not be able to run any further and the zombies would catch them and turn them into their own kind.

0=0=0=0

Standing looking out of the basement window watching for Buffy's return, Willow wished she still had a working cellphone. But she didn't, they'd thrown away all their technology after Giles' car had started to turn into some kind of weird building eating machine. It seemed that the newer the technology the faster the robo-bugs would take it over and change it into something else.

However, Willow didn't need a cellphone or even a watch to know that it was getting dark and Buffy hadn't returned from her scavenging expedition. On the one hand Willow knew that Buffy was the slayer and could easily defeat the robo-zombies. On the other hand she also knew that there were a heck of a lot of robo-zombies and in her weakened state Buffy could only fight for so long.

Turning, Willow looked down to where Dawn slept fitfully on the floor under a blanket they'd got from upstairs. Unbidden a nasty, little, voice at the back of Willow's mind told her that she should abandon Dawn and that Buffy wasn't coming back and wasn't she the most powerful witch in the world? Hadn't she almost destroyed the entire planet? Couldn't she do that again, surely she could destroy these Invaders with just a wave of her hand if only Buffy wasn't there to hold her back?

With a gasp, Willow snapped out of these dark, evil-Willow thoughts, she'd never desert her friends but... But, destroying the Earth might be their only option. It was obvious now she'd had time to think about it that they couldn't keep running forever. The Invaders and their robo-zombies would corner them and catch them some day soon. Earth was lost, that was evident, there was nothing that anyone could do even the most powerful witch in the world was helpless against them, but...

If humanity couldn't have the Earth, Willow didn't see any reason that some alien power should have it. It seemed certain to Willow that these Invaders had done this to other planets, Earth couldn't be the only world to fall foul of these interstellar planet wreckers. If she could destroy the Earth while at the same time destroying the Invader's spaceship she might be saving other planets and possibly other civilisations, she'd be doing the universe a favour. Her race was as good as dead so she might as well go down fighting.

Of course she'd need her and Giles' magic books and for that she'd need to go back to Sunnydale...if Sunnydale was still there. They'd seen huge machines chomp through buildings and towns transforming them into something that looked oddly like oil refineries. Laughing a little hysterically, Willow wondered if this was all about oil, perhaps for all their high techiness the aliens ran everything on gas! No, that probably wasn't it, she'd told herself with a sad sigh.

Now with a plan in mind, Willow decided to await Buffy's return; she'd explain everything to her friend and hope she'd agree to come with her. The mission would be easier with Buffy than without her, but whatever Buffy said, Willow was going to go through with her plan come what may.

“Willow?” Dawn called sleepily as she came out from under her blanket.

“How are you feeling Dawnie?” Willow asked as she crossed the basement to sit down next to her young friend.

“Better,” Dawn admitted, “I'm like still totally hungry but I don't feel so, tired...is Buffy back yet?”

“Not yet, I expect she's...” Willow paused as she heard movement upstairs, “...shush,” Willow put her finger to her lips indicating that Dawn should keep quiet.

Casting a very minor and low powered spell (she was concerned that the Invaders could detect and track her magic) Willow signed with relief.

“Buffy's back,” she smiled.

“Hope she's found something to eat,” Dawn replied eagerly as they both scrambled to their feet and turned to watch the door up to the main part of the house.

“Buffy?” Willow called hopefully as the door to the basement slowly swung open.

There silhouetted against the evening light was Buffy's outline as she slowly made her way down into the basement.

“Buffy?” Willow called again as a feeling of foreboding swept over her, “Buffy?” she asked again as her friend stepped into a beam of evening sunlight that shone in through the basement window; crying out in fear and hopelessness, Willow knew the end had come as she clutched hold of Dawn and the younger girl screamed when she saw what had happened to her sister.

“We are the Borg.” said the cyborg that had once been Buffy Summers, “We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own...resistance is futile.”

The End.


End file.
